I agree there is not to get excited about it.

I think the status points system is actually raising the level to upgrade or maintain the membership levels.

I will give you an example.
You can sort of say around 1000miles earned on the old system is equal to about 10 points. I know it is not exact but it seems to be around that.

(Old system) Emerald currently needs 50000 miles within a 12 month period to qualify (upgrade to emerald).

Emerald needs 80,000 miles within 2 years to get the renewal.

(New status points system) Emerald needs 720 points within 12 months to upgrade.

Emerald needs 1,150 points within 2 years to renew the membership tier.

So you can see it is quite a bit harder to upgrade or renew once the new system comes in.

The only small positives. Dirt low priced economy on flights on partners that may have earned no mileage before will always earn you some status points. Buying business class or higher ticket classes will not get you status points when flying partner airlines.

Can I just say the 720 status points (upgrade) and 1150 (renewal) for emerald gives me pre 2014 mileage qualification vibes.

I believe it was like 70k (miles) upgrade and 110k (miles) renewal when i first joined back in 2011.

Maybe one benefit in the long term is there definately will be far less emerald and paragon members by 2028\2029. So with that maybe more complimentry upgrades for those that stick around.

One other slight positive aspect is the companion (Can now be any friend or family flying with you.) upgrade for emeralds and paragon members has been loosened. Please tell me i am wrong but it seems if you have a friend with a fully flex economy ticket and you are in business with the class C ticket. You can upgrade them all the way into business (skipping premium economy). Just seems not as strict as before.

Lets hope they can offer a little more to spice up the membership considering it will be harder to renew.

For my family it is very likely my wife and son will drop down to gold at the end of 2027. They just dont fly so much. But definately solid golds which is ok I guess.

For myself I think I can maintain the emerald membership but it might require an additional excuse once a year to say visit family in Europe or a little more leisure travel.

Bang for buck status points seems to sit around the T class level in economy (standard ticket). So I may try to aim for that.
The premium cabins just dont earn the status points for what you spend.

Finally. I hope they may may follow Qantas practice in offering double status for limited special times once or twice per year to get people to book.

I am not fully sold on this program and will consider in about 2 years what i will do.